Even if you plan on hiring a firm to build your web site for you, it is good to have an idea of how the process works before getting started. The first thing to learn is how to register a domain name.
A domain name is basically your website’s address (or URL) i.e. mydomainname.com. It is more important than ever to present a professional image. To be truly noticed it is far better to register and use your own unique domain name. This will give you the added benefit of being able to create email addresses such as me@mydomainname.com – much more professional than mybusiness@myisp.com!
So, how to register a domain name? The first thing, of course, is to find a domain name that no one has already registered. Domain names are registered with “registrars”. A registrar is simply the web site where you would register a domain – a few examples are networksolutions.com and lowcostdomains.com.
It’s vital to keep a record of which registrar you used to register your domain. Registrars will give you a user name and password that you’ll use to manage your domain so you'll not want to lose them. It is a major pain trying to make changes to a domain when the domain owner has lost the registration records. Believe me, it’s no fun.
Registrars will have some type of tool on their websites that you can use to research what domain names are available. The World Wide Web is a huge place and it’s all too common to not be able to get your preferred domain name.
Once you find a domain name you are happy with, you can go ahead and pay for your purchase. You’ll have the option to register your domain from one or two to many years – yes you will have to renew, and pay again. Fortunately domain names are not expensive.
Once you have bought your domain name, it will have to be hosted. By “hosting”, I mean having the web site stored on server on the Internet. You might want to shop around or ask your web designer unless of course you decide to create your own website. It's not a bad idea to print off any information you get from the hosting company and keep it in a safe place.
Now it's time to setup your name servers. I know, I know, technical stuff but really, it’s not that involved.
The hosting company will have sent you the IP addresses of their name servers. IP addresses are a series of four numbers separated by dots, for example 172.81.214.143. You should have received at least two of these numbers.
Make note of them, log into the registrar’s site with the user name and password they provided and look for the option to change name servers for your domain. Put the numbers into the registrar's site and you'll be finished.
It will typically take a couple of days for your new domain to become available at which time you can start to setup your web page and any email addresses you might need.
